Giorgio Basta () also known as Count of Huszt or Gheorghe Basta (1550 – 1607) was an Italian general, diplomat, and writer of Arbëreshë Albanian origin, employed by the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to command Habsburg forces in the Long War of 1593–1606. He was later sent to administer Transylvania as an Imperial vassal and to restore Catholicism as the dominant religion in the region.
On his orders, his ally Michael the Brave, who ruled Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia, was assassinated on 9 August 1601, a few days after the common victory at the Battle of Guruslău, for trying to turn against Rudolf II. For this, he is often depicted as disloyal and violent by Romanian and Hungarian historians. Basta was also the author of books on the art of military leadership.
Biography Basta was born to an Arbëreshë Albanian father and an Italian mother. He is claimed to be born in La Rocca, modern day Roccaforzata, a village in Salento, Italy, however historical sources claim he was born in Ulpiano nel Monferrato.Spontini, Historia della Transilvania, Venetia, 1638, p. 336.
He was the son of Demetrius Basta, an Albanian Epirote who had fled the Ottoman conquest of the region to Italy, where he served the Spanish Empire. His father fought in the Piedmont countryside in the middle 1500s, and then in Flanders as commander of a cavalry regiment under the Duke of Alba. Very young, Basta became a soldier and eventually got promoted to the rank of officer in a detachment commanded by Demetrio. Then after his father died, Basta served in a cavalry company run by his oldest brother Niccolò. In 1589, he married Anne de Liedekerke de Gavre, with whom he had 5 children: Charles, Georges, Demetrius, Ferdinand and Madeleine.Basta, Comte d’Hust et du Saint-Empire (1550-1607), sa vie, sa famille et sa descendance, D. Labarre de Raillicourt, Paris, 1968, p. 9.Charles-Albert de Behault, Le général Georges Basta, comte d'Hust et du Saint-Empire, terreur des armées ottomanes, Bulletin trimestriel de l'Association de la Noblesse du Royaume de Belgique, no 300, octobre 2019, p. 15-41.
He began his military career in Flanders, where the young officer impressed Don John of Austria, and gained the governorship of Nivelles. In 1577 he joined the forces of Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma in Flanders. He led his army mainly on the French front during the War of the Three Henrys and the Catholic League. In 1584, Basta gained his first major victory when his troops were blocking communications between Malines and Antwerp. Similarly, during the siege of Brussels which ended with a capitulation of the besiegers in March 1585, Basta led the blockade of the city.Charles-Albert de Behault, Le siège d'Anvers par Alexandre Farnèse, duc de Parme, Bulletin de l'Association de la Noblesse du Royaume de Belgique, n° 307, Bruxelles, juillet 2021, p. 11 (Antwerp), p. 20 (Brussels). During the end of the year, the commander led the cavalry of the expeditionary body, which at Charles de Mansfeld's orders.... When the Catholics, in 1589, marched to retake Paris, it was the cavalry led by Basta who rescued the back of the Spanish army from the sudden attack of Henry of Navarre.
He returned to France in 1591 and partook in the siege of Rouen with the rank of Commander General of the cavalry. He, however, was almost killed by Sir Roger Williams, who sliced his neck in personal combat.Lawrence, David, The Complete Soldier: Military Books and Military Culture in Early Stuart England, 1603-1645, Brill, 2009, p.66. In February 1592, he separated Navarre from his greater army, and the prince fled capture by his forces. He was tasked with ensuring communications between Rouen and the Netherlands, which was massively threatened by the French army, and then protecting the retreat of the Spaniards after the injury of Alexander Farnese in Caudebec.
In 1596, after the death of the Duke of Parma, Basta followed the fate of many Italian princes and had to abandon the Spanish. He then went to the service of Emperor Rudolf II, on the recommendation of Philip II. Rudolph II named Basta general of his light cavalry and made him a knight of the Order of the Golden Spur on February 16, 1598.Basta György hadvezér levelezése és iratai [Giorgio Basta military leader's letters and documents]. Volume 1, 1597-1602-, Dr. Veress, Endre. Budapest, 1909, Akadémiai Kiadó, p. XXXIII. He served as general master in the army of Archbishop Mattia, later deputy governor of Upper Hungary, and finally the commander of the armies of Hungary and Transylvania. Ambrogio Merodio, in his Istoria Tarantina, calls him the "terror of Ottoman armies".
For more than a decade, Basta fought against Hungarians, Transylvanians, Vlachs, and Tatars, gaining much fame as one as the best generals of the Empire. In 1597 he was released, together with General Schwarzenberg, from Pápa, which was conquered three years earlier by the Turks. In 1597, while he was deputy governor of Hungary, he recaptured the city of Huszt, which had rebelled against the Empire.
At the Battle of Mirăslău, Michael the Brave was defeated by Basta, forcing Michael to appeal to the Emperor Rudolf II to mediate the dispute with Basta.
Under his command, his ally Michael the Brave, the former ruler of Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia, was assassinated at Keresztesmező camp, István Kakas (1556–1603): Persiai utazás (Trip to Persia) Erdélyi Múzeum 1894/11 adatbank.transindex.ro near Aranyosgyéres (now Câmpia Turzii, Câmpia Turzii), because Basta considered him a liability. The event happened on 9 August 1601,Giurescu, p. 201–05. only days after a joint victory in the Battle of Guruslău. Following the murder of Michael and his victory over Báthory, Basta became the military commander of Transylvania, but his cruelty led to public discontent. Under his leadership, iniquities and murders multiplied throughout Transylvania. During this brief period, Basta tried to uproot Protestantism. Following Papal and Imperial policy, Calvinist Hungarians and Székelys, Orthodox Wallachians and Serbs, and Lutheran Saxons were subject to any kind of abuse. Following years of warfare and his ruthless regime, famine and plague appeared in Transylvania. At that time Rudolf II decided to recall him from command, leading to Basta's departure from Transylvania and put him in charge of fighting against the Ottomans of West Hungary (1604).23. July 1604. Basta's letter to Prince Matthias about to leave Transylvania to fight against Ottomans in West Hungary. In: Basta György hadvezér levelezése és iratai.[Giorgio Basta military leader's letters and documents]. II. Volume. 1602-1607Editor and translator: Dr. Veress, Endre. Budapest, 1913. Akadémiai Kiadó (Document no. 1601.)466. p, https://archive.org/stream/bastagyrgyhadv02bastuoft#page/466/mode/1up He successfully defended Esztergom with his 10,000 mercenaries against 80,000 Ottomans.
After Bocskai's uprisen army chased away Belgiojoso, Rudolph sent Basta from West-Hungary to the Partium to suppress the uprising. In November 1604, Basta twice defeated forces led by Stephen Bocskai (see also: Bocskai Uprising). Bocskai, in the end, cut his supplies, and he had to withdraw in winter to Eperjes where he got trapped. After some months, Rudolph called him back to defend at first the mining towns (e.g. Besztercebánya) in Upper-Hungary,17th April 1605. Basta's letters to Prince Matthias about his bad condition(no wages for the mercenaries, and he got sick, etc.). In: Basta György hadvezér levelezése és iratai.[Giorgio Basta military leader's letters and documents]. II. Volume. 1602-1607 Editor and translator: Dr. Veress, Endre. Budapest, 1913. Akadémiai Kiadó 647. phttps://archive.org/stream/bastagyrgyhadv02bastuoft#page/466/mode/1up Moravia and Austria against Bocskai's looting armies.Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the seventeenth century Volume 192 of Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society Author Kenneth Meyer Setton Publisher American Philosophical Society, 1991 , Length 502 pages link
In July 1605, he did not get enough money to keep up enough mercenaries to defend Visegrád, Esztergom and Érsekújvár against the Ottomans and was defeated by Lalla Mehmed. The Military Committee did not supply him enough money but Rudolph II made him a Czech baron to compensate. The court became tired of the war, and they started pushing aside Basta after the Treaty of Vienna and Treaty of Zsitvatorok, and they didn't even want to pay him their debt. He claimed 380,000 Thaler debt from the court (80 000 wages of mercenaries came from his own pocket). In his last four years, he did not get his payment and was not even invited to the Military Committee.In: Basta György hadvezér levelezése és iratai. II. Volume. 1602-1607 Editor and translator: Dr. Veress, Endre. Budapest, 1913. Akadémiai Kiadó [about Basta's last years] XXV-XXXII. phttps://archive.org/stream/bastagyrgyhadv02bastuoft#page/466/mode/1up
After his experiences of warfare in Eastern Europe, he went to Prague. On April 17, 1606, Pope Paul V pronounced an interdict against the Republic of Venice. On February 26, 1607, Basta was named lieutenant general of the Holy Church.Basta György hadvezér levelezése és iratai. II. Volume. 1602-1607, Dr. Veress, Endre. Budapest, 1913, Akadémiai Kiadó, pp. 779 and 782. The Venetian interdict, having been cancelled on 21 April 1607, Basta will never take command effectively.
Basta died in Prague on 20 November 1607.
Basta wrote several military manuals, the best known of which are his Il maestro di campo generale...(Venice 1606), and his posthumous work Il governo della cavalleria leggiera (Venice 1612). Both were translated into German and into French.
Contributions and military style
Basta was born into a period of transition from the traditional sword and shield to the gun. And cavalry switched from the Gendarme to lighter and armed cavalrymen, which valued quick cavalry charges. Due to the influence of his father, he was a very strict observer of the rules and the laws of a militia. When he worked for Alexander, Duke of Parma, he was responsible for the renewal and restructuring of the cavalry weapon. However, during his early years, Basta experimented with his personal method of "mobile sculptures", which were small and numerous groups of cavalrymen who pushed in the forefront of the army, so as to create a complete "crown" in continuous movement; The method assured the army of sudden destructive capability and gave fruit in the French countryside.